Fatal crash fuels elderly-driver debate in Minnesota

| Friday, September 12, 2003

A
Minnesota legislator has called for more stringent rules on senior
drivers following a deadly accident that claimed the lives of an
elderly couple killed when their car collided with one driven by
an 88-year-old woman.

Sen.
Dean Johnson, DFL-Wilmar, told TheBrainerd Daily Dispatch senior drivers should be subject to more testing, such as eye exams,
and written and road tests.

Charles,
90, and Hertha Zimmer, 89, were killed Aug. 31 in one of a string
of crashes allegedly caused by Mary Kirkeby, 88, of Falcon Heights,
MN.

Kirkeby
apparently left a Roseville drug store and backed into two cars,
over shrubbery, a sidewalk and a curb before stopping in traffic,
the newspaper reported. When a witness approached, asking Kirkeby
if she was OK, she suddenly accelerated away.

The
car crossed four lanes of traffic, jumped a curb, careened back
into oncoming traffic, and smashed into the passenger side of the
Zimmers’ car. The couple died at the scene.

Johnson,
who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, said the day after
the accident that he anticipated calling a hearing about senior
drivers, as well as public safety in general, when lawmakers return
to the capital next month.

“I’m
not centering in because an 88-year-old woman had an accident and
two people were killed,” he said. “It’s a larger issue.”

Minnesota’s
3.65 million licensed drivers must renew their licenses every four
years. The only requirements are to pass a vision test and take
a new driver’s license photo. About 509,000 of those drivers are
65 or older.